Next to the culture of Cereals and the rearing of domestic
animals, the culture of flax and hemp, both as textile plants
and as oleaginous grains, is the most important branch of Russian
husbandry. The gross value of these products amounts, at a very
moderate estimate, to about 55,500,000 of silver roubles ($43,500,000);
and both soil and climate are exceedingly favorable to their culture,
throughout a great part of the empire. As their production greatly
exceeds the wants of the home manufacture, the extension of their
culture essentially depends on the facility with which they find
an outlet in the foreign markets. Flax and hemp have always formed
two of the principal exports; and, if to these we add oleaginous
grains, which consist principally of the seeds of hemp and flax,
we shall find that the export of these three articles, taken as
a whole, exceeds in value that of any other product.